It’s official ‘GIFs’ – Graphic Interchange Format files are making a very clever comeback.
We’ve already highlighted the nostalgic examples by Cari Vander Yacht and next on our list is Dain Fagerholm’s ‘Monster Stereographic’ drawings; 3D-style GIFs.
The GIF is a very popular form of expression on Tumblr and as a result, the animated images are making a revival back into mainstream as users search for a more primitive experience on the web in contrast to the high-tech, high-definition world of quality graphics we are all becoming so used to.
As animated GIFs are interesting and often humorous, people are likely to share and re-share them making them a powerful marketing format for brands to take note of.
Cari Vander Yacht you have way too much time on your hands at night working on experimental projects like ‘TGIMGIF’ (Thank God It’s Monday’s Graphics Interchange Format). Thank goodness for that otherwise the artistic design world would be a duller place!
These animated GIFS are surreal, clever, funny and so ‘on trend’ – we just keeping saying ‘we want one of those’! So, polaroids of the past beware we are about to have a play in the Jellyhaus sandpit.
….. and our personal favourite (below) only because when we looked at this one earlier Madness and Baggy Trousers started playing on the radio; perfect timing…..
The team at Jellyhaus are always excited when Kit emails us with his new work and his latest piece of digital sculpture is brilliant! Thank you for the updates Kit!
Kit’s explanation, ‘Enigmatica acts as an experimental platform for the combination of light, sound and space in order to develop immersive synthasthetic environments. A series of suspended frames diminish in size down the length of the gallery acting as a canvas for the display of surface specific projected visual sequences. By positioning the frames in a perfect series, and developing visualisations that are isolated to these frames, I aim to create a work that does not exist entirely in one or two dimensions but a form of synthetic hybridized space. It is this constructed inter-dimensionality and the development of freely flowing abstract visual and sonic sequences that aims to demonstrate the potential for new forms of digital sculpture.’
One of Britain’s national treasures – although some council officials might argue that point – Banksy the street artist, public-space jester and museum curator is famed for his snogging coppers, simpering apes and cheeky rats. Now Banksy takes his very own brand of ‘Irony’ into the cinema directing ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’.
It is a beautifully layered pseudo documentary about street art which turns into a documentary about Banksy and changes again into a documentary about the documentary before the paint can dry on his latest work.
At the centre of the film is the friendship, or is it, between Banksy and one of his apparent greatest fans, fashioning stalker like qualities, one Thierry Guetta. A French-American who films every aspect of his life in a desire to want to be a film-maker. Thierry is drawn into the street-art scene through his cousin, Space Invader, whose thing is to paste up icons from the classic video game. There is great footage of the early nocturnal shenanigans of artists who have since gone on to be collected – such as Shepard Fairey, best known for his Obama “Hope” poster.
The missing piece from Guetta’s collection was Banksy. So the two team up and we are treated to glimpses of the artist – or rather body parts of the artist – at work in his studio. Most amusingly, we see him placing an inflatable Guantanamo Bay inmate in Disneyland’s Rocky Mountain Railroad ride, which leads to Guetta being held for four hours by the Disney police.
The first completed documentary, however, is no good. Banksy tells Guetta to go and be a street artist while he sorts the footage out.
Guetta takes him at more than his word employing other artists to manifest his ideas, he creates hundreds of works of art, and publicises a massive exhibition in Los Angeles with a supporting quote from Banksy pasted on billboards. The rest…..well for you to watch his space!
Sundance has shown films by unknown artists but never an anonymous one. Banksy turns the tables on the only man who has ever filmed him, creating a remarkable documentary that is part personal journey and part an exposé of the art world with its mind-altering mix of hot air and hype. In the end, Exit Through the Gift Shop is an amazing ride, a cautionary modern fairy tale . . . with bolt cutters.
Let’s start with a given: James Cameron is a great film-maker; any director with a CV that includes Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator and Titanic has earned that designation. Whether or not Titanic is on your Top Five Best Ever Films list is irrelevant; a film that can gross more than $1.5 billion knows a thing or two about what cinemagoers want.
With that in mind and as we have been tracking both the 3D and augmented reality trends for 12 months now, several of the team here went to see Avatar yesterday evening in order to sample Cameron’s latest release which, if you believe the marketing, is the future of cinema. In the seats beforehand there was much merriment as friends laughed at each other in their 3D glasses, although as they are now plastic and not card, they have the effect of turning everyone into a simulacrum of Jonathan Meades. The mirth turned to genuine amazement when the short animated just before the film showed the capability of the new technology; the dog and ball are certainly worth the 50p cost of the glasses and do go quite a way toward the price of the main attraction – “if the whole film is going to be like this”, we whispered to each other, “wow!”.
So what did we think? Well, a bit of a let-down to be honest. Firstly, the genre for the film may not have been the most effective choice for demonstrating the future of cinema. On several occasions, the rapid interchange actual and CGI sequences left you feeling that you were watching a commercial for a games console release, where the statement ‘representation of actual gameplay’ appears at the base of the advert. Yes, the CGI work is exceptional but you keep thinking ‘this is a computer game’. Now, part of Avatar’s significance is its blending of real and CGI imagery but not only has that been done before (think back to Tron, however clunky it may have been in 1982 – but wait to see what next year’s remake is like) and, as above, the stuff is out there already in TV ads so isn’t exactly innovative….
His talent is unquestionable, his dedication is admirable, his legendary status is unassailable and his kit is awesome!
Lance Armstrong has defied all odds again (I’ve lost count of exactly how many times) and returned to the professional cycling circuit in support of his global cancer-fighting initiative and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. As part of a long-term association with the bike manufacturer TREK, he has asked them to give him a helping hand in his quest for world cancer domination. The result is a series of hand-painted bikes, emblazoned by the world’s most coveted artists.
The collection, bizarrely named ‘STAGES‘, will be on show at the Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris before moving to the US this Autumn.
Amongst the colourful (and in my opinion, must-have) collection, the bike painted by our own Damien Hirst, aptly named ‘MADONE‘ particularly caught our eye. Lance will ride this bike on the Tour de France’s final stage on Sunday. The whole collection will be auctioned in the future and the Damien Hirst effort is expected to raise a figure nearing $1mil all (or most) of which will be going to the Lance Armstrong Foundation (Livestrong).
We’re having a whipround in the office so I can indulge my fantasy of:
Owning a better bike, and;
Being the campest cyclist on the road!
Any contributions to our cause would be appreciated! (or, maybe, on second thoughts, why don’t you give some money to Livestrong instead!)
I’m sure many have experienced it. You’re sitting in a Marketing/PR meeting with a Press Release deadline looming and your MD wants a “friendly feel” to this one. “Use a nice font, I quite like Brush Script“, they would say after a quick peruse through their anorexic Windows NT font library.
Now Brush Script has its place (mainly on flyers for your local Bakery or on email signatures for creatively suppressed CEOs) which is why professional agencies won’t touch it even with a large, pointy desktop novelty. However, font design, and in particular, script font design has upped its game over recent times. With font creation software becoming easier to use and cheaper to buy, the creative talents of the world are being drawn to try their hand at being typographers and doing a pretty good job of it too! Where a huge quality gap in the script font market once existed, in its place is now a multitude of free or low-cost font families of exceptional quality. For example, Memoriam Pro and Alpine Script are two beautifully crafted pieces of work available for around £30 each.
So next time, if you want to add a little difference to your internal memo or quickly drafted press release, consider looking a bit further than your Microsoft Word font list and delve into the world of modern font artistry. Best place to start is myfonts.com.
The Affordable Art Fair opens tomorrow in New York and the fantastic ArtWeLove site is taking the opportunity to launch its free access site. After a year of members only access, now anyone can use the site to explore and discover the global contemporary arts scene.
ArtWeLove is the first online art community to provide collective intelligence on the global art scene, its artists, its culture, its places, its people. Their mission is to actively promote the understanding and appreciation of contemporary art by allowing experts and everyday enthusiasts to share their knowledge and passion with other like-minded art lovers.
The site acts like your own personal art consultant, featuring worldwide venue and show listings, expert commentary on up-and-coming artists and recommended shows, and inexhaustible information on new artists and trends. Most importantly, ArtWeLove invites users to “explore art on your own terms.” Users can search by artist, emerging markets, techniques, movements and styles. You can archive or share favorites, connecting with like-minded art enthusiasts in the process.
Ceal Floyer, one of the artists featured on WeLoveArt, is the art world’s Steven Wright, tossing out conceptual one-liners that find a precarious balance between humor and something resembling philosophical heft. In the Pakistan-born, Berlin-based artist’s latest show at 303 Gallery -a typically sparse affair – the three works on display all riff on the slippery nature of language, leaving viewers with a smile and a little less certainty.
Ceal Floyer lives and works in Berlin, where she received her B.A. from Goldsmiths College in 1994. A multimedia artist working in video, sound and light projection works on paper, and sculpture, Floyer’s work examines the dialectical tension between the literal and the mundane, and the imaginative construction of meaning. The deceptive simplicity of Floyer’s work is informed by her particular sense of humor and awareness of the absurd; her use of double-takes and shifting points of view forces the viewer to renegotiate their perception of the world.
“The 2009 UK Countdown to London 2012 £5 Coin is an Official Licensed Product of London 2012 and as such is housed in specific London 2012 packaging and features the official London 2012 logo”
The coin is the first in a series of four to be launched annually from now until 2012. On the reverse, it features the number three to signify three years until the start of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, alongside images of swimmers racing to the finish line, while the framework border is a reference to the new Olympic stadium as seen from above.
A press release explains that “The gold and silver versions of the coin are the first UK £5 coins to feature the Olympic rings and logo in full colour.”
Only 4,000 gold proof coins (which cost £1,295 each) will be produced by the Royal Mint. In addition, 30,000 silver proof coins (£54.95 each) and 500,000 cupro-nickel coins (£9.95 each) will be available.
I’ve grown to like the Olympic logo. The more I see it, the more I respect it. It’s versatile, bold, un-prissy and contentious.
But this isn’t about the logo, it’s about the coin. Surely the coin would be more commemorative and collectable if it were to echo the bold shapes of the Olympic identity? Maybe something similar to the ‘0′ in the logo?
It’s not like anyone is going to be sticking a grand’s worth of metal into a vending machine is it? (unless we take Homer Simpson’s lead!) Can’t it be made into something really memorable?
And a final thought on the coin’s design – a big great “3″ on a £5 coin?! An accessibility nightmare don’t you think?!
In the summer of 2007, artist and medical student Satre Stuelke started the Radiology Art project. Dedicated to the deeper visualization of various objects that hold unique cultural importance in modern society, this project intends to plant a seed of scientific creativity in the minds of all those inclined to participate. Satre Stuelke compiled a collection of amazing views of the hidden world inside of objects. Using CT scanners and X-ray machines, he’s captured the unknown world behind everyday things including toys and electronics. Depending on the spread of densities within a particular subject, black or white backgrounds are chosen, images are then further processed in Adobe Photoshop for proper contrast and balance. We think it would be very interesting to see the results of this art printed in 3D digital print and then viewed through the Augmented Reality process from Total Immersion.
